New Derby
The Commonwealth of New Derby (commonly New Derby; Italian: Repubblica della Verona e Venezia Nuova, Verona e Venezia Nuova) is a unitary sovereign state located on the New Derby Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. New Derby is located north of the Pitcairn Islands and south of the Hawai'ian islands. New Derby is a commonwealth under a bicameral Legislature and president, the President, elected by the people, serving as the head of state and the Congressional Minister, elected by the legislature, as the head of government. By its Constitution, New Derby is a democratic country divided into four Prefectures. New Derby is a unitary state, which mean the prefectures have little power on a political scale, and all power in the country is given to the national government. New Derby is indexed highly in democracy, freedom, and political openness. New Derby is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth Realm, and the Pacific Forum. The country maintains relations with many countries in the Pacific and in the Western World and is generally seen as a Western country despite its claims of "neutrality in international politics." The Economy of New Derby is classified as developed, and the country ranks highly in wealth distribution and standards of living. New Derby's government maintains large control over most commodities, officially making the economy mixed market. Because of its distance from other developed nations and its small size, the price of importation is high. The government controls commercial imports entirely and the cost of the commodities that are imported. Food and other necessary materials are given "import necessity", meaning that those materials are given precedence over consumer goods when the government orders imports. Because of this, consumer goods are imported directly by their retailers, and most other goods are produced within New Derby itself. As a result, New Derby has a diverse economy that balanced primarily between manufacturing and services. History Pre-European The earliest archaeological remains on New Derby date back to 1220 AD, on Big Potato. The site, the Big Potato Polynesian Excavation Site, has been found to hold the remains of a village that was once believed to have been settled by Polynesians from Tahiti. The village is assumed to have been abandoned in 1290, as evidence suggests a storm might have caused massive civil havoc within the small society. Another site on New Derby Island, the Cook Sound Polynesian Excavation Site, is believed to have been settled around 1290 AD, the same year in which the settlement on Big Potato is believed to have been abandoned. The Cook Sound location is believed to have been abandoned sometime in the 1350s for unknown causes. When Captain James Cook arrived in 1773, all three islands were uninhabited. Founding and Settlement On August 18th, 1773, Captain James Cook discovered what is now known as Cook Sound on the west coast of New Derby island. Cook and his British and Tahitian crew remained on the island for a single day before heading out for sea again. Cook stayed in what is now known as the Cook Marshlands, and historians presume he did not urge settlement because of the swamp-like quality of the place upon which he stayed. The islands are not mentioned again until a group of British colonists arrived on the Bastion Grasslands in 1803 and founded the colony of New Southampton. The colonists named the island "New Derby" because many of them were from the British city of Derby. They left Derby because of the heavy pollution, and originally intended to go to New Zealand. They overshot New Zealand during a massive storm, and by luck, landed in New Derby three months later than as planned. Two months later in the August of 1803, Italians from Venice and Verona arrived on the east coast of New Derby island, and proclaimed the island to be "Verona Nuova" and established a colony at present day Milano Nuova. After months of cohabitation, the two groups found each other in 1804, each claiming that the island belonged to their respective mother countries. They agreed to establish a boundary between the two at the Alps, the Italians receiving the east and the British receiving the west. Derbish Colonial War On March 18th, 1812, the Italian colony established a fort at present day East Fork. The fort violated the terms of the treaty, though the establishing party of the fort did not claim to be apart of the Italian colony. The British soon began harassing Italian vessels traveling too and from the colony, and the Italians began to attack British merchant vessels outright near New Southampton. The British colonists soon began calling for a war against the Italians after the sinking of the HMS Poppyflower, which was holding a large amount of British colonists; all of which where killed in the sinking. The New Southampton government then broke the treaty with the Italians, and sent out a militia to attack the fort. The Battle of East Fork incited massive outrage from the Italians after the British took over the fort. The Derbish Colonial War began officially when the Italians attacked the British in the Battle of New Southampton. For most of the war, it became a hassle to transport troops across the highlands and the Alps for assaults on each other's colonies. Instead, the majority of the fighting took place at sea. The British took full control of the island on June 17th, 1813, when the Italians surrendered after the 2nd Battle of Cook Sound. British rule and expansion After the British took control of the Italian colony, a new influx of British citizens allowed for expansion into the present day prefectures of Potato, Cook, and Bastion. The colony soon grew in size to where it was recognized by the British monarchy as a Crown Colony. While the British population grew, so did the Italian. The Italians spread across the Veronese Highlands after safety on the island had been restored, and soon the present day cities of Milano Nouva and Veronaville were established. The Italians centered themselves around their former colony, and British attempts to enforce English and English law upon the former Italian colony failed considerably. After the population of the Crown Colony grew to 15,000 in 1882, the British government took more considerable control over the Italians. The installment of a permanent British military post at Veronaville caused trouble with the local Italian government, and the British Army placed the two Italian cities under marshal law. A military governor was put in charge of the former Italian colony, and the freedom in the region dropped significantly. Derbish Civil War On May 4th, 1883 Italians in Veronaville were openly throwing rocks at the British government compound that housed the Military Governor. The event escalated into the Veronaville Massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 37 civilians and 3 British soldiers. By May 7th, the Verona region was in total outrage at the British for attacking Italian civilians, while the British regions were in outrage at the Italians for attacking the British soldiers. The East Fork Riot broke out in the half Italian and half British town, resulting in the deaths of nearly 20 people. The government began to lose control of the Verona region, and on May 13th the region declared itself the Most Serene Republic of Verona. The Most Serene Republic then declared war upon the Crown Colony of New Derby, and the Republic sent out troops to attack the British fort at Veronaville. The 1st Battle of Veronaville resulted in the burning of the British fort and the deaths of the Military Governor and nearly 120 other British soldiers. The Crown Colony responded by sending a naval force to blockade Veronaville and Milano Nuova. The Veronese Blockade impaired the Republic from trading and shipping, at which its economy relied on. The resulting economic downfall spurred the government of the Repblic to begin conscription on a massive scale, recruiting nearly 2,450 people into its army. With considerable backing from the British government, the Colony's army of nearly 3,130 outnumbered the Veronese in both man and fire power. The resulting Derbish Civil War lasted from 1883 to 1886. The Civil War was ended after the 2nd Battle of Bastion, when the Italians and British agreed to a ceasefire and the subsequent Treaty of Embankment. Independence After the Civil War, New Derby's primary economic areas had been almost completely destroyed. Hunger, impoverishment, and urban decay was prevalent throughout the country. The Treaty of Embankment agreed to establish a Colonial government that would work to unite the British and Italians into a single entity, rather than two ethnic groups feuding over one island. The Potato Isles, which were largely uninhabited, soon became important to the restructuring of New Derby since they were far from the fighting of the Civil War. Potato City soon became the primary destination of most international trade, and the city's affluence spread across the larger New Derby island. The industrialization of Potato City allowed for increased economic success from the region, and that success allowed for the government to use revenues to assist in country wide reconstruction. With the use of funds from the British government and Potato City government, the Colonial government rebuilt most destroyed areas of the country and encouraged widespread immigration from both Britain and Italy. By 1900, the island's population had more than tripled from around 9,000 to 31,000. The massive growth in population spurred economic and infrastructural growth across the colony, and soon the colony returned to a stable period by The February of 1902. That same month, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Commonwealth of New Derby Act, which established New Derby as an independent commonwealth in the same fashion as Australia. With its new independence, the nation stabilized in growth and in a political sense. The Prefectures were adopted into their modern day forms, and the new national government was established out of Embankment. Interwar period Contemporary period Category:National